Community members, including Paul Reneau (from left), Amir Yasrebdoust and Sushil Pillai, participate Wednesday in a brainstorming session on Milwaukee’s foster care system. Participants discussed challenges facing the system and ideas on improvements.

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Foster care caseworkers in Milwaukee County feel overworked, under-trained and insufficiently supported by the community in which they work, according to a study released Wednesday that, among other things, plumbs caseworker attitudes toward the child welfare system.

The study, commissioned by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Bright Futures Milwaukee Fund and conducted by the Planning Council for Health and Human Services, seeks to provide a broad view of the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare's strengths and weaknesses. Most significantly, it provides rare insight into the challenges and frustration facing the foster care system's front-line workers.

According to the study, based on interviews with a wide spectrum of participants in the Milwaukee County child welfare system:

• The average caseload, or number of children per caseworker, was 21.1. The Child Welfare League of America recommends caseloads between 12 and 15 children per foster care worker.

• While the bureau reports turnover rates for ongoing case managers averaged 32.2%, that rate includes new hires. The actual rate is closer to 50%.

• The time caseworkers can spend with clients is diluted by tasks such as paperwork, transportation and court appearances.

An unnamed caseworker is quoted in the study as saying: "High caseload and paperwork are the number one barriers. I can't even see my clients."

• Caseworkers feel they bear the brunt of unrealistic community expectations and organizational decisions that are made to calm community anger and frustration.

• Caseworkers feel ill-prepared to make medical judgments about children and want more training in how to recognize when children have been mistreated.

Turnover, caseworkers said, "is linked to many factors, including inadequate preparation, stress, burnout, and the attractiveness of other career advancement opportunities," the report says.

"Among some participants, there was a sense that new caseworkers participate in training to build their résumés or to complete graduate school, and they leave after they have amassed experience or education.

"Other participants stated that new caseworkers do not stay on the job long because it is so demanding and overwhelming," the study says.

In the study, caseworker frustration is palpable.

"Some said that they did not feel their contribution to helping protect children was respected," the study says.

"As put by one participant, 'We don't feel appreciated in the media or in the community.' "

The study, which was released at a community meeting Wednesday, provides a snapshot of the bureau at the end of 2008.

As of Dec. 31, there were 671 children in licensed, non-relative foster care. Another 186 children were with relatives in licensed foster care. Some 800 children were in non-licensed, court-ordered kinship care.

The study cited a 2007 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts supporting kinship care arrangements. That report found that foster care placements with relatives tend to be more stable than placements with unrelated foster families, siblings are less likely to be separated, children are able to maintain community connections, and relatives are more likely to adopt or become permanent guardians.

More foster homes sought

The report sounded an alarm that more foster parents are needed.

The number of licensed foster homes has decreased from nearly 3,000 at the beginning of this decade to 680 on Dec. 31. The bureau is seeking to increase the number of foster homes to 875 by the end of this year.

"Nearly everyone interviewed agreed there are too few caregivers," the report says.

"Because of this, they said, some children are being placed out of town, out of the county and far to the north. Some parents aren't able to travel the distance to visit their children."

As a result of shortages, the study says, children are being placed in questionable homes.

"The experts who were interviewed said there are indeed homes that are substandard and there are indeed times when workers are reluctant to leave a child in a questionable home, but do it because 'it's better than nothing,' " the report says.

"Conversely, if they find a good home, they may be reluctant to enforce all the rules and policies," the report says. "Closing marginal foster homes is said to be difficult."

Some participants in the study portrayed the bureau as a fragmented bureaucracy.

"Many commented that there is no foster care 'system' in Milwaukee," the study says. "It is more a collection of disparate efforts that are often siloed and isolated."

About 70 people, including parents, foster parents, doctors, police officers and child advocates, attended Wednesday's meeting. After the presentation of the study, Deborah Banks, chairman of the board for the Planning Council, asked participants to brainstorm ways to "make Milwaukee a leader in keeping kids safe in foster care."

Themes of the discussion included improving communication among parents, foster parents and case managers; addressing mental health needs of at-risk parents and foster children; and preventing the need for foster care by supporting families.

People at the meeting also suggested compiling an online guide that lists both resources for people involved in the system and volunteer opportunities for the community at large.

About Crocker Stephenson

Crocker Stephenson covers urban affairs and city government. He has won many regional and national awards for his stories concerning public health, child welfare, poverty, urban life and welfare reform.